18 Jan Learn at the Library!
Having this knowledge enables us to understand other cultures, time periods, and traditions, and it helps us add to that data bank by continuing to explore all disciplines to expand on what we already know. Collecting information and materials, organizing all of it, and then making it available for the benefit of everyone is one of the essential roles of libraries.
If you’re one of those people that gets lost in bookstores and loves to talk about ideas, you’ll be fascinated by the story of the Library at Alexandria. It was, in its day, the center for learning and education in the ancient world. When Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria in 332 BC, he believed that knowledge was a key component of power.
While Alexandria was definitely a prime location from a military standpoint, Alexander expected it would become an intellectual hotspot, too. He wanted books, and loads of them, though he died before he had the chance to see that dream become a reality. That hope came to fruition through the efforts of Ptolemy, who ruled following Alexander’s death.
The Library at Alexandria held a vast collection of books written on scrolls. (Interesting side note: We also know that Aristotle gave his personal collection of books to the library in his will.).
The library represented a hub for intellectuals and scribes, and many of the great minds of the day spent time there for study and scholarship. It’s exciting that for being such an important and famous location in antiquity, we aren’t sure where the original library was. Today we only know the site of the Serapeum, which housed more materials as the library’s collection increased. It is expected that the Serapeum potentially held 300,000 books, but no one can say with assurance how big the collection for the entire library actually was. We know that it did exist, and that learning for the sake of learning was valued and encouraged in the ancient world. Doesn’t that sound like something we want our young people to value today?
As a motorcoach specialist, we work with schools to provide quality transportation for all age groups with our charter bus Maine. Whether we are helping transport children for an elementary field trip, get a team where they need to be for a competition, or be the means whereby a college research team goes to a field site, we think that education is necessary. And just as the Library of Alexandria was the most significant library of its time, we have a modern equivalent today in the United States. The Library of Congress is an outstanding library holding more materials than you can wrap your mind around. It was conceived as a library to serve members of Congress, and it’s a research library– meaning you can’t check anything out. There are tons of materials available online, but you can also goto the library and study in one of their reading rooms onsite.
Few years after its inception, however, the Library of Congress was burned by the British in August of 1814. It was only a short matter of time before Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a substitute. His collection of over 6,400 books more than doubled the size of the original library, and it was acquired by the United States at a price of almost $24,000 dollars.
The library takes up three buildings: the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John Adams Building, and the James Madison Memorial Building. Among other gems, the library houses some handwritten documents from significant times in our country’s history: the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the first Inaugural Address given by George Washington, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The library’s collection contains materials from many countries, in many languages, in a variety of mediums.
The Library at Alexandria and the Library of Congress are like bookends in time, two pillars in the ancient and modern world that attest to mankind’s thirst for information and knowledge. And as a motorcoach provider, we are grateful for the scholarship and opportunities that libraries afford us. Not all education takes place when you’re sitting down with a book. Some of it turns out when you do practical, hands-on learning outings to get out and spot an actual site where vital events took place. … if you have a transportation need for a group of students, let us be the solution you’re looking for!
Details for this article arises from the following sources:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omD9U4eXjzs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria.
https://www.loc.gov/about/fascinating-facts/.
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